A concert of electroacoustic music

University of Toronto
Faculty of Music

A CONCERT OF

ELECTROACOUSTIC

MUSIC

Sunday, March 12, 1995
2:00 pm
Walter Hall
Edward Johnson Building

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For G: Gustav Ciamaga
Images David Myska

Fiona Wilkinson, flute
David Myska, electronics

Wee hour in “E” Otto Joachim
Ghosts Gary Kulesha

David Bourque, bass clarinet
Gary Kulesha, piano

Intermission

Views beyond... Dennis Patrick
Three Women Maurice Methot
Maurice Methot, guitar.

The Mega4Mega4 Christos Hatzis

Douglas Perry, viola

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Gustav Ciamaga retired from full-time teaching in July’94.
During the past 32 years he has been an active member of
the Faculty of Music’s Theory and Composition Division

__ and Electroacoustic Music Studio.

For G: (1988) is one of eight works ( others include For B:,
For H:, etc.) written for departed colleagues. the ‘G’ in this
instance is jazz musician and educator Gordon Delamont
with whom I studied theory and composition in the late
40’s.

David Myska composes for the electroacoustic medium as
well as for instruments and the voice. His music has been
performed in Canada, the United States, England, France,
and Australia. His documentary film scores have
accompanied exhibitions at the New York Metropolitan
Museum, the Louvre and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Recent compositions include LES ETOILES for large
orchestra and SECOND PIANO TRIO “THE

. SCORPION”. He has graduate degrees from the University

of Toronto and Harvard University and is presently an
Associate Professor of music at the University of Western
Ontario.

Images for flute and synthesis (1991-92)

A few years ago, I was invited to visit a friend’s east ‘coast
retreat. This secluded property included an oceanside dwarf
forest high above the water. Among the tree branches were
suspended wind chimes in many assorted media, sizes and
shapes. The day was warm, clear and very blustery. The
shimmering light, clangorous sounds and smashing breakers

left a permanent impression. Most of the electronic sounds
used in this piece are processed flute samples.

Fiona Wilkinson, a graduate of the University of Toronto,
studied with Robert Aitken, Louis Moyse, and Jeanne
Baxtresser. She performs with Trio Lyra, The Aeolian Wind
Quintet, Triptych, the Oliver Whitehead Jazz Quartet, and is
presently Professor of Flute and Chamber Music at the
University of Western Ontario.

Otto Joachim (b1910) is the oldest composer in Quebec
and yet one of the youngest. Obliged to leave his native
Germany in 1934, he came to Canada from China in 1949.
He has had premieres at the Champs Elysées, Lincoln
Center, etc. with the Boston, Chicago, Toronto, and
Montreal Symphony Orchestras. His “Katimavik”, written
for EXPO ‘67, is said to be the first Canadian electronic 4
channel composition. His many honours include the Grand
Prix Paul Gilson; Grand Prix Calixa Lavalée; Chevalier de
Ordre National du Québec; and a honourary doctorate
from Concordia University.

Wee hour in “E” (1993) is the forerunner of a non-
electronic composition for 13 instruments and speaker to be
premiered later this year by the S.M.C.Q in Montreal.

Gary Kulesha has appeared as both a conductor and
pianist in both traditional repertoire and contemporary
works. His activities have included concerts, radio
broadcasts, and commercial recordings. Currently the
Composer in Residence with the Canadian Opera Company,

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his opera "Red Emma" will be premiered by the COC in the
fall of 1995.

The title,Ghosts, refers primarily to the appearance of
flickering “ghosts” from the many works I have written for
bass clarinetist Davie Bourque. It also alludes to the fact
that one summer, while we both worked at the Stratford
Festival, we co-rented a haunted house to live in. Although
I do not believe in the “supernatural”, I have had both of my
two “paranormal” experiences in the company of David.
Ghosts was commissioned by David Bourque through the
Canada Council in 1988.

David Bourque, a graduate of the Faculty of Music,
University of Toronto, is the bass clarinetist of The Toronto
Symphony. He has appeared as a soloist with the Kitchener
Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, and has performed for many
CBC Radio broadcasts.

Dennis Patrick directs the University of Toronto's
Electroacoustic Music Studio (UTEMS) and is a member of
the Theory and Composition Division of the Faculty of Music.
In addition to an interest in the use of computers in music,
Patrick composes music for CBC Radio Drama. In June, the
four hour dramatization of Michael Ondaatje’s The English
Patient is being broadcast in Australia.

Views beyond...(1995) is derived from an algorithmic
fragment that reflects a nostalgia I have felt this past winter.
The twenty year old images of downtown Toronto, originally
photographed and arranged here by my wife Barbara,
provide a visual dimension to this nostalgia.

Maurice Methot is currently a Lecturer in Computer Music
at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. His
works have been performed at the Oberlin Conservatory,
the Moscow Conservatory, the Gnessins Institute, and the
St. Petersburg Conservatory, as well as at an extensive
number of rock, pop, new music, and jazz venues. His
current interest lies mainly in a combination of algorithmic |
compositional approaches and realtime control of video,
audio, and MIDI files.

“Three Women” utilizes a computer algorithm based on a
dynamical system called the Feigenbaum equation to
manipulate digitized video and audio taken from interviews
with three women of different cultural and economic
backgrounds. The control system is made up of an
inexpensive MIDI guitar controller, Kurzweill K2000 digital
synthesizer/sampler, and an original "MAX" application
which enables realtime control of MIDI, audio, and visual
information.

Christos Hatzis was born in Volos, Greece. He began his
music studies at the local branch of the Hellenic
Conservatory and then later in America. At the Eastman
School of Music, he completed his undergraduate studies
under the guidance of Joseph Schwantner. Warren Benson,
Samuel Adler and Russell Perk. In 1982, Mr. Hatzis earned
his Ph.D. from SUNY at Buffalo, where he studied
composition with Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller and
Wlodzimierz Kotonski. He emigrated to Canada in 1982,
became a Canadian citizen in 1985 and has lived in Toronto
ever since. He is the recipient of over thirty commissions

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and grants from the Canada Council, the Ontario Art
Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, the Arts Council of Great Britain
and the London Arts Board, among others. His music has
represented Canada and Greece at international gatherings
such as the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music
in Stockholm, the ISCM World Music Days In Oslo, the.
Prix Futura in Berlin and the Prix Italia. In addition to the
attention that his music draws at international festivals and
the frequent performances of his music globally, Christos
Hatzis is also regularly broadcast by CBC Radio and other
international networks. He has recently been appointed
Associate Professor of Composition at the Faculty of
Music, University of Toronto. Upcoming projects include
an “Encounters '95” concert on April 4 featuring the music
of John Taverner and Christos Hatzis and a trip to Baffin
Island with CBC producer Keith Horner in June to record
Inuit throat singers.

The Mega4 Meta4 was commissioned by Douglas Perry
with a grant from the Ontario Arts Council. It is the fifth
and final piece of Earthrise, a pentalogy of electroacoustic
works. With the exception of the opening pentatonic
theme, the Mega4 Meta4 is constructed entirely from
quoted material (mainly from the four earlier pieces of
Earthrise and from Albinoni's Adagio.) The quoted material
is used as a starting point and, once stated, it is developed,
repeated and juxtaposed on top of other, sometimes non-
compatible material in such a way that the overall effect is
that of dynamic pluralism and constant motion in opposite
directions. The Mega4 Meta4 takes its name from my first

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computer, an Atari Mega4 ST. In the context of my
compositional output it represents the arrival point of a long
and all-consuming preoccupation with various musical
cultures and with findings a means of synthesizing
heterogenous elements in an eclectic, yet seamless whole.
Douglas Perry, a graduate of the Faculty of Music,
University of Toronto, is principal viola of the Canadian
Opera Orchestra and a founding member of Tafelmusik.
This season he performed at the International Viola
Congress in Chicago, recorded Luciano Berio’s VOCE II,
and toured Japan. Recently he recorded C.P.E. Bach’s
sonatas for flute, viola, and pianoforte on period
instruments.

CT